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Day after bail, Jalandhar AAP MLA stays in jail, held in new extortion case
In an FIR registered at Rama Mandi police station on August 23, Raman Arora accused of extorting money from a Jalandhar-based parking lot contractor.
A day after the Punjab and Haryana high court granted Jalandhar Central AAP MLA Raman Arora bail, the Jalandhar commissionerate police arrested him in another case of extortion and criminal intimidation. He was yet to be released from jail.
The Jalandhar police team brought Arora on a production warrant from Nabha jail and produced him in a local court that sent him into three days’ police custody.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau had arrested the MLA on May 23 following a month-long investigation in a corruption and extortion racket being run under his patronage.
According to a fresh FIR registered at Rama Mandi police station on August 23, Arora was accused of extorting money from a Jalandhar-based parking lot contractor.
The case was registered under Sections of 308(2)(extortion by threatening grievous hurt), 308(6)(extortion by threatening false accusations of serious crimes) and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Senior officials of the Jalandhar commissionerate police were tightlipped about the development. “The details of the case will be shared later,” said Dhanpreet Kaur Randhawa, commissioner of police.
Meanwhile, Arora’s lawyer Naveen Chadha said they came to know about the registration of the fresh case only on Thursday morning. “We came to know the case was registered on the complaint of contractor Ramesh Kumar, who in his complaint, accused Arora of extorting monthly payments of ₹30,000. We are yet to get a detailed copy of the FIR,” Chadha said.
Coming out of the Jalandhar court complex, Arora said: “The government is deliberately framing me in a false case”, before he was whisked away by police personnel.
Raman Arora, who was once close to the AAP top leadership in the state, including chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party state president Aman Arora, was on the radar of state agencies after they received multiple complaints against him.
VB files 900-page chargesheet
The VB has already filed a 900-page chargesheet against Arora in a corruption case and accused him of misusing his political power to gain undue financial gains from local traders and owners of commercial complexes.
The chargesheet carried the statements of top doctors, traders, industrialists and real estate developers recorded with the bureau following Raman Arora’s arrest. It was also stated in the copy of the challan that he and other accused orchestrated the corruption-cum-extortion racket where the building violation notices were issued to builders and the matter was then resolved in exchange for bribes.
According to the VB probe, Raman Arora and assistant town planner (ATP) Sukhdev Vashisht identified the ongoing or completed commercial and residential construction projects, served them violation notices and then settled the matter after collecting bribes. In several cases, builders were directed to meet the MLA to resolve issues raised in the notices.
During a seven-hour raid on the MLA’s residence on May 23, the VB seized ₹6 lakh, 1.2kg of gold ornaments and incriminating documents.
Officials recovered 75-80 notices allegedly issued as part of this extortion racket. Police officials posted in Arora’s constituency since April 2022 have also been questioned.
It may be recalled that Congress’ Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira, who had got bail from the Punjab and Haryana high court on January 3, 2024, in a 2015 drugs case, was arrested a day later by the Kapurthala police in another case for threatening and intimidating witness in the same case.
